Contempt motion filed in meningitis outbreak

Oct. 15, 2013

Written by

Walter F. Roche Jr.

The Tennessean

The trustee in the bankruptcy case of a Massachusetts drug compounding firm is asking a federal judge to find five health-care facilities, including two in California, in contempt of court for failing to disclose the names of possible victims of a fatal fungal meningitis outbreak.

The contempt motion filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Massachusetts Tuesday charges that the health facilities have refused to comply despite an Aug. 13 deadline.

The motion filed on behalf of Bankruptcy Trustee Paul D. Moore and a committee of unsecured creditors charges that the delay in response means that victims have several weeks less time to respond and file claims. The judge in the case has set a deadline of Jan. 15, 2014, for filing claims.

The facilities all received potentially tainted spinal steroids from the New England Compounding Center, the now-shuttered company blamed for the fungal meningitis outbreak that has killed 54 patients, including 16 who were treated in Tennessee.

Named in the motion were the two California facilities, Encino Outpatient Surgicenter in Encino and the Ukiah Valley Medical Center in Ukiah. The New Jersey facilities are Comprehensive Pain Management in Sparta, Edison Surgical Center in Edison and IF Pain Associates in Teaneck.

While the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported 51 New Jersey patients were infected by the tainted methylprednisolone acetate, not a single case has been reported in California. One California patient, however, has filed a lawsuit contending she was infected by an NECC product.

In Tennessee, 153 patients were reported to have been sickened by the NECC steroid. No deaths have been reported in New Jersey.

Under the order, the health facilities are required to file reports, including name, address and telephone number, on the patients treated with the tainted drugs. The order, however, requires that the information not be made public.

Citing the “five holdouts,” the motion states that the trustee and creditors’ committee “simply can’t wait any longer.”

The filing marks the second time the trustee has asked for health-care providers to be held in contempt.

In a related development Tuesday, 37 cases filed by Tennessee victims of the outbreak were transferred from U.S. District Court in Nashville to a federal court in Boston where all the pending civil cases are being merged before a single judge.